The Strongest Spellblade

Professor Chartworth looked over Ozy who was laying on an observation table. The Professor was leading the study into pets and using them for more esoteric skills like healing. He was one of the Professors who did long term and in depth research that was sold to others. He felt research on pets as a support tool for adventurers had monetary potential, which was he was supporting my efforts with Ozy.

He then looked at the new status sheet I had provided for Ozy after the dungeon descent. I hadn’t checked my status. I was sticking to once every 3 months for checking my status. But for Ozy, he required much more regular checkups to properly chart his progress and skill gain. Unlike humans, the College had very limited information about pets.

Winged Serpent

Level: 30/462 Experience: 876/2,380

Healing: 1,050/1,050 Stamina: 350/350 Mana: 850/850

Class: Tier 1, Young Winged Serpent(Orange)

Effect: Alchemy Skill Growth(+50%), Alchemic Skill Power(+100%)

Vitality: 105 ()

Endurance: 35 ()

Strength: 52 ()

Agility: 84 ()

Perception: 38 ()

Mind: 96 ()

Magic: 85 ()

Focus: 45 ()

Free Points: 60

T1: Bite(92+5)

T2: Toxic Breath(60+13), Alchemic Vision(42+10)

T3: Alchemy(48+8), Poison Insight(24+2), Fire Insight (9+1), Cold Insight(9+1), Arcane Insight(9+1), Spatial Insight(8+1), Soul Insight(3+1)

T4: Soul Link(28+5), Flight(23+3), Alchemic Bounded Field(17+5)

“His length only increased 3.82 centimeters. Total length 167.45 centimeters. An increase of 2.28%. Increase of 3 levels. We will have to continue to track growth to level,” Professor Chartworth said while checking over Ozy and recording the information.

“What about his skill gain?” I asked.

“Higher than average, not that we have a large data set for pets and none for this monster archetype. His free points are interesting. He is waiting for your input before using them. That shows a high degree of trust,” the Professor said.

“Any suggestions?” I asked.

“One in each stat with the extra two in magic for every ten free points. While you are training to be a support caster, being well rounded is important for anyone adventuring, human or pet,” the Professor said.

I mentally conveyed the information to Ozy through our bound. There was no reason to doubt the Professor and his explanation made sense. The stat points were distributed but there was no visual change about my pet, except a slight increase in Mana around him.

“The fact he listens so well is a sign that you have been training him well. Keep that up for as long possible,” the Professor said.

“I don’t plan to go back to the dungeon for a while,” I replied.

“That is fine. It will give more time for increasing his skills,” the Professor said and pulled out an Alchemical crystal from a glass container with a pair of tongs. “Give this for your pet to eat. It is the skill Healing Insight. It is best he get started on these skills early on. They will naturally increase over time. Truly broken these insight skills, a shame people can’t use them.” I took the pair of tongs and gave the Alchemical skill crystal to Ozy, who ate it.

I could feel him happy at getting a new skill. I checked his status and Healing Insight was there in tier 3 with one new level. “It took hold immediately,” I said.

“Expected, since monsters are made of Mana. How was combat with Ozy here in the dungeon? Be detailed and don’t hesitate to give your opinion,” the Professor said.

“Ozy was good, but he struggled in wider and more complex applications of Alchemy. That is why I kept instructions as simple as possible. Avoid danger. Use this elemental attack. His instincts were quite good, helping out in an unexpected way like intercepting a monster about to attack me while I was going after a larger threat,” I explained.

“That is the bond skill. Just be careful that you remain in the dominant position. You should always place your life above his and make sure that concept is reinforced over time. From what I have seen you have done a good job. The more the bond skills grows, the more this dynamic will set into place. But it can reverse even if the bond is maximized. So be careful,” the Professor explained and I nodded.

While I liked Ozy, he was ultimately a pet, a tool, a weapon, to help me. Like my mother’s sword, I would treasure and be careful with him, but I wouldn’t forget this. I might want to go down a different path and have a companion, but I wasn’t about to be stupid regarding what Ozy actually was.

Stolen novel; please report.

One didn’t put themselves in front of their sword. While I would be using Ozy for support, this didn’t change the fact that he would serve me and would be the best.

“What about his class? Do monsters have classes like humans?” I asked.

“No. They change class every 50 levels and start at tier 1 unlike humans,” the Professor said.

“His maximum level is listed as 462, which exceeds the known colors,” I said.

“Yes, it does. Ozy is a Winged Serpent. A monster normally found below the 20th layer. And he is clearly an egg from a Champion level monster, which is even more rare. His parent was probably around level 230, a blue core monster. People have tried training pets up to get a higher level core, but you have seen the experience graphs, it is brutal,” the Professor said and I nodded.

“That is how we know of a violet core. A huge test was done in the past to feed a singular monster tremendous amounts of Mana deep in the dungeon. Eventually it gained a violet core. Unfortunately the costs were too prohibitive to continue since the experiment caused the dungeon to send swarms of monsters. One of the few things that have made the dungeon react,” the Professor explained.

“I was wondering how people knew of violet cores when no one has gone that deep,” I said.

“It isn’t something that is advertised. Otherwise, people might try setting up monster farms in the dungeon, which is foolishness. That is how you have dungeon breaks, and it is probably what caused the most recent disaster. Some experiment built up too much Mana and then erupted. So, while such things are known, they aren’t spread about,” he explained. That made more sense than my mother causing such a situation.

“But what about increasing the potential of a monster’s class ahead of time?” I asked.

“That isn’t possible. It has been tried but has ended in failure. We don’t understand the more complex workings of class advancement and monster cores. Research into Mana remains a complex and difficult field of research,” the Professor said.

“What about training? I know you mentioned creating a training curriculum?” I asked.

“Indeed. I want to see if insight skills can be improved through applications of the skills Alchemy and Bounded Alchemic Field. Training insight skills rapidly would make pets a much more viable option for adventurers. Rather than waiting years or decades for these insight skills, a pet could be trained up in a much shorter time,” he said.

Ultimately the College made quite a bit of money from selling its research and insights. While that part of the College impacted the courses I took, with the goal of increasing leveling speed, there was also quite a bit of research in other areas, especially System mechanics and System interactions.

Pets had only been lightly explored over the decades, but the Professor was hopeful that he could develop some breakthroughs. The better a breakthrough could be monetized, the more prestige and funding the Professor would receive from the College.

In time if pets became big enough, it might start a new discipline here at the College. This would set up Professor Chartworth as the new Vice Dean of the discipline. More likely it would lead to the creation of several courses that the Professor would appoint his disciples to manage as Professors in their own right.

The competition between the Professors was just as intense as the students even if it wasn’t as readily visible. Each of them wanted to achieve a major breakthrough and leave their name in history. If the insight training methods were good enough, future texts might reference the Chartworth Insight Pet Training Methodology.

He showed me to a room with Ozy, where Ozy had to transform one substance to another using Alchemy and Bounded Alchemic Field. The transformations included heating and cooling the samples, as well as transitioning from solids to liquids to gases. The samples were secured behind a glass wall for safety reasons. The Professor and I also had to wear goggles and breathing masks just in case.

While we wouldn’t die, Alchemic tests at the College had specific safety requirements to be carried out.

“You will bring Ozy here once a day for an hour and use up all his Mana. I have designed a series of training exercises to improve his insight skills as rapidly as possible. We will do weekly tracking on his leveling progress,” the Professor said.

“Isn’t that a bit much?” I asked.

“No. Not for a pet and this type of training. Monsters learn differently than humans, especially with insight skills. While the overlays of our status might look similar, the mechanics underlying them are quite different,” he explained.

I looked at Ozy, who just looked back up at me with his red eyes. “Do you know of any way I can increase the color of my class besides a soul fruit?” I asked.

“There is an entire research group here at the College devoted to investigating this. They would be the best ones to ask about your class if you are looking to improve the color,” Professor Chartworth said while stroking his short beard. “Such things aren’t cheap, and you are already going to quite a large debt with your pet.”

“I know, but I am curious if there are other options besides soul fruits,” I said.

“I wish you lots of luck. I am guessing you already have a blue or indigo class?”

“Blue,” I answered and he nodded a this.

“Then you will be in for a hard time increasing the base potential of your class. It is something that is inherent to individuals and not easily changed. It has been something people have been asking since the dawn of time. A class is incredibly powerful. Those percentage improvements might not seem like much, but they add up over time if you focus on learning or in combat as a powerful force multiplier,” he explained, and I nodded at this.

While it was easy to look down at the 10% boost to various skill and stat training, it was incredibly powerful. Especially the stat training. If there was any reason I picked a class with similar effects it was probably due to that. Stats were the foundation of so much.

My constant issues with the Mind stat proved this. But once I got into spell skills, Mana reserves, from my Magic stat would become increasingly more important. Skill acquisition might not seem like a great boost, but it made it easier to get started with skills.

If I could improve the potential of my class some more, then it would really start to shine.